Abstract
This chapter aims to retrace the historical evolution of Muslim marriage, as represented in Islamic legal texts and public discourses, from the advent of Islam to our contemporary age. To do so, it will provide a short overview of the normative references to marriage in Islamic scriptural texts (the Qur’an and the hadith compilations), covering instructions on who is marriageable to a Muslim, how to contract a valid marriage, and what legal consequences the spousal union entails for both partners. Then, it addresses the various ways in which premodern jurists and exegetes have interpreted the sacred sources. Finally, the chapter offers an examination of the impact of colonialism and modernity on the conceptualization of marriage and the family in Muslim discourses, a survey of major reforms enacted throughout the twentieth century by the national states that emerged in postcolonial contexts, and an excursus on contemporary debates centering around the need for further reforms or rather for dismantling the ones previously introduced.
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Picchi, M. (2020). Muslim Marriage and Contemporary Challenges. In: Lukens-Bull, R., Woodward, M. (eds) Handbook of Contemporary Islam and Muslim Lives. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73653-2_55-1
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